Tag Archives: Amy

Courtesy: Part 10

The pressure in my head increased. It wasn’t unbearable or even painful, but it felt like it filled my head. 

Over the comm, I asked, “Is anyone else feeling this?”

Everyone seemed to say yes at once with Kals’ voice rising above the rest to say, “It reminds me of an Abominator psi-bomb. I caught the edge of one once when the Ascendancy put down a rebellion we were involved in.”

“You think this is a psi-bomb,” Daniel asked. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 10

Courtesy: Part 9

Could the mushroom zombies replace Arete’s missing parts or access his memory? The latter option would represent a major security leak both for the Defenders and the Nine.

It didn’t seem likely, but if it was possible, I didn’t like it. From what I’d seen of it, even acting collectively the zombies weren’t very smart, but if they could integrate Arete in, maybe they could be. Plus, what if they could reproduce his powers in the mushroom zombies?

We needed to end this, but we’d have to figure out where to hit it. We’d destroyed the “brain.” We’d need to figure out where the backup was or if it could operate as some kind of swarm without a center. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 9

Courtesy: Part 8

The tendrils died at an alarming rate. Even though Hal downplayed the effectiveness of the anti-personnel lasers, he could fire off multiple beams at multiple targets. They wouldn’t have been effective against the mushroom central brain he’d destroyed, but against these tendrils it was good enough.

The tendrils sizzled and stopped moving. Somewhere in the back of my brain, the part that distantly remembered breakfast, I wondered if these were edible mushrooms and hoped they weren’t psychedelic.

Psychedelic mushrooms did grow in Michigan. I’d checked Wikipedia once. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 8

Courtesy: Part 6

By the time I did notice that Gifford, Hunter, and other members of Major Justice’s team as well as Shifter were sinking toward the ground, they were shouting at Gifford who was staring off into space.

Was he too tired or had one of the mushroom tendrils gotten lucky and hit him? Either way they were dropping into range of not only the tendrils’ shots (which might not get through the wind), but also the clouds of spores that puffed outward whenever the shots hit something. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 6

Roll the Dice: Part 18

“You really think it’ll be easy to get him to call it off for today? From what I’ve seen so far, it was a challenge to even get him to admit we were in the earliest stages of a zombie apocalypse,” I used my HUD to take a quick look to see where we were with that.

There weren’t any nearby at all—not even among the trees. I’d adjusted the suit’s sensors to detect them and set the implant to watch for movement.

At this point, Vaughn had stopped hitting them with lightning and Amy hovered above the forest, staring downward, doubtless trying to detect them with magic much as I was with technology. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 18

Roll the Dice: Part 15

Among the figures flying along with South Beach Surfer were two women curled up as if somersaulting through the air. I knew them instantly—Ina and Leena, the Human Cannonballs.

They were from Mime’s team, a group with a Circus theme. I’d never done the necessary research to know if someone just liked circuses or if they’d been circus performers cursed (or blessed) with thematically appropriate powers.

Either way, they were weird—not the people, their powers. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 15

Roll The Dice: Part 14

Major Justice sputtered, “We… We don’t have anyone in reserve. Every available person is in the fight.”

Except for the first word or two, he sounded honest. I said, “Great, but if someone new arrives, please send them in. I’m not sure how we win this.”

“We’re all here,” he grunted. “We’ll win this.”

Then he closed the connection. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 14

Roll The Dice: Part 13

When the lightning stopped, I could see smoking zombie bodies all the way down the road. Many of them were charred to the point that they were unrecognizable or at least they would have been if they were human.

Had they been human, I’d have been horrified at the devastation. Given that they weren’t human, I could only feel disappointment that it wasn’t worse. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 13

Roll the Dice: Part 12

Major Justice made a grunt that I nearly missed in the roar of my rockets shooting me skyward and then closed our connection.

That was fine. I didn’t want to talk to him either.

Once in the air, I noticed something I hadn’t from the ground—a lot of things. For one, I noticed the helicopters in the air. That’s helicopters as in the plural version, specifically three of them. There were two different news crews and a police helicopter.

Also, police cars were rolling down the streets in our direction which was great. Maybe they’d be able to keep the civilians safe. 

Maybe. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 12

Roll The Dice: Part 11

I called Kayla, telling her what I’d learned in as few words as I could. I suggested that she might want to contact the offices of Major Justice and superheroes he led. He wasn’t going to listen to me.

Then she should make a more general announcement to regional and national groups about the situation and give them footage along with what Hunter said in our conversation.

“I’ll try,” Kayla let out a sigh, “it’s not as if he likes me either, but maybe someone else will show up and make him see reason.”

“I’m not optimistic, but if more people show up, we’ve got a better chance to control it,” I said, firing off a boombot at a new cluster of mixed humanoid and T.Rex zombies. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 11